A session to understand Skype for Business Hybrid scenarios & features and how Skype for Business On-Prem interacts with Skype for Business Online.

Hybrid = a combination of components on premises and online.

Development in cloud is iterating faser than the on premises versions (and Skype for business have already evolved since this presentation were held. Maybe most notably by the addition of the Skype for Business Cloud Connector Edition.This presentaiton ended with som early thinking aronud this new feature and some questions around it.)

Requirements to start up a hybrid

Skype for business on premises with Edge and federation with Office 365

Friday, April 22, 2016

Geeking away another Friday night (9:00 A.M. Pacific = 18:00 in Sweden) this time about the Mac Client - Preview and demo.

Presented by Sean Wilson, Paul Cannon and Kaushal Mehta.

The new client is built with a new codebase; it is not an upgrade or refresh of Lync for Mac 2011. Meeting joins and sharing have been problems with the old client. The new client can run side-by-side with the old client and it will use SILK as the default codec.

There will be 3 previews before RTM with preview 1 coming RSN - "Real Soon Now". These previews will be cumulative meaning: Preview 1 will contain meeting functionality, preview 2 will add on contact lists and instant messaging to the functionality in preview 1. Preview 3 will add on calling and voice functionality to the client.

This was nicely demonstrated in the webcast with 3 big Lego Duplo bricks :-)

Sign up as soon as you see the Mac client preview - participation will be granted on a first-come first-served basis.

The Meeting view with a connection to the Exchange calendar and a join button.

Preview 1 will (probably) include the following features

Full screen video(with black edges which apparently makes people think about movies)

Desktop sharing - two way, even between PCs and Macs.

People pane and instant massages in meetings.

Meet now button

Questions answered

Remote control from Mac is a feature that will not be included in the RTM version (but is planned for in a drop after RTM), also the Unified Contact Store will not be there.Persistent chat is in maintenance mode even in the Windows client this means that enhancements are limited to security and stability fixes only, Persistent chat will not be in the Mac client.

Quality of Service - might be in the RTM version, or will be added in a later update.

Friday, April 15, 2016

This Friday
night (9:00 A.M. Pacific = 18:00 in Sweden) I listened in to the live video
broadcast about the Skype Cloud Connector Edition.

A nice 45-minute
conversation about what Skype CCE is, how to deploy it and feedback from early
customer testing.

During
development Skype CCE had the nickname "minimal Topology", so the
on-prem component can be seen as a very minimal Skype for business system. It consists
of a domain controller, edge and mediation server and Central Management Store.

The
mediation server is the same "bits" - the same software - as the
mediation server in a normal on-prem S4B system. The installation is configured
using a "ini file", CloudConnector.ini. The installer will read this
file and can restart a stopped installation in case prerequisites are not met
or other issues occur. Skype CCE can also be installed in a High Availability
configuration.

Both Sonus and Audiocodes have already announced packages with CCE included in a hardware
appliance box.

Some
questions and answers from the webcast:

Can we use
Express Route with CCE and get QoS on the calls?

Yes,
Express Route does work with CCE.

On the
CCE "no existing S4B" requirement - can the AD be prepped for, but
have OCS/Lync/S4B servers decommissioned, or is a green field AD required?

Yes, AD can
be prepped for S4B/Lync. You just cannot have S4B/Lync running on-premises.

Are there
any plans to support VMware hypervisors for CCE in the future?

No plans
currently.

If we would
like to move certain group of users to cloud and use telephony on-prem. Can we
do that?

Correct.
CCE is for folks in the cloud who do not have S4B on-premises.

How would
using Skype in the cloud use E911 and meet the mandates of 911?

It really
is no different to on-premises configuration. When you give an Office 365 user
a PSTN Calling license, you must configure their E911 information before we
allow you to complete the configuration and give them a number.

If a
customer has existing investment in S4B On-prem but want to move subset of
users to S4B online and keep PSTN on-prem, does Cloud Connector fit in this
scenario?

Your
on-premises deployment currently supports being connected to the cloud. CCE is
currently targeted to those who do not have S4B deployed on-prem.

Microsoft
hope to enhance CCE over the next few months to support more complex
topologies.